Justine Henin wins Comeback Match

Justine Henin won the first match of her WTA Tour comeback, by beating world #20 and #2 seed Nadia Petrova in two tight sets at the Brisbane International. Henin who is currently unranked beat the Russian, 75 75, for the 12th time in 14 career meetings. The two players played in an exhibition in Cairo last December 2009 in the third of Henin's three exhibition matches before her first official match here in Brisbane. Henin won that match also in straight sets but this match proved to be harder to win.

Henin is using this tournament as a tune-up for her Australian Open 2010 campaign where she has been confident enough to say that she is a contender for the title. She now faces qualifier and former French Open quarterfinalist Sesil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan. Karatantcheva beat Australian wild card Casey Dellacqua in a 3rd set tiebreak to advance to the second round.

Henin's next higher profile match-up would be former world #1 Ana Ivanovic if both players reach the semifinals. If Henin wins that one, she will have a showdown with top-seeded and fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters, the 2009 US Open champion and world #18.